Indoor air exposure to volatile compounds emitted by paints: experiment and model

Abstract

To describe the evaporation of organic solvents from paints and the resulting indoor concentrations, a mathematical model and an indoor paint experiment are presented. The model describes painting in terms of an increasing area of paint during application and two compartments of paint once applied. Evaporation of organic solvents is driven by the vapor pressure of the organic solvent. The experiment revealed concentrations of n -alkanes in indoor air, during painting, and 3 days thereafter. To compare experimental results to model predictions, model parameters were measured at the start of the experiment. Diffusional exchange between paint compartments and fraction of paint applied to the upper compartment were set by expert judgment. Model predictions and experimental results were in agreement, although the timing of the concentration peak appeared difficult to predict.

Modeling Relationships between Indoor and Outdoor Air Quality

“…Indoor sources include heaters, cooking stoves, paint, fuel, and smoking, which cause indoor emission of a wide range of pollutants. [5][6][7][8] From the viewpoint of air pollution control, pollutants emitted both outdoors and indoors are of specific interest. 1 In such cases, one is faced with the dual problem of entrance and exit of the pollutant by the same ventilation stream.…”

Non-professional paint stripping, model prediction and experimental validation of indoor dichloromethane levels

“…It appears that a priori model settings predict upper concentration levels well, but overpredict four out of six experiments by a factor 2.5. A priori settings were derived from the present experimental set‐up, a previous experiment on painting (van Veen et al., 1999) and dichloromethane physico‐chemical properties.…”

“…Table 2 lists the parameters that could directly be measured from the room or had to be assumed based on van Veen et al. (1999).…”

“…The three parameters describing the layered paint stripper matrix are difficult to measure, being the diffusional exchange rate between the layers, the relative size of the layers and the molecular weight of the matrix. We first applied the parameter values that worked well in the paint experiment of van Veen et al. (1999).…”

“…Consumer products have long been recognized as important indoor sources of chemicals, some containing large amounts of volatile organic compounds. The use of consumer products with volatile components is expected to temporarily increase the indoor concentration of chemicals (Otson et al., 1981; van Veen et al., 1999; Wallace et al., 1987). Paint stripper is a regularly used product and many brands use dichloromethane as main ingredient (Otson et al., 1981; Riley et al., 2000).…”